Shanghai Bobby is the high weight on the 2012 Experimental Free Handicap.

2012 Experimental Free Handicap

Date: 01/30/2013

Shanghai Bobby, last year's champion 2-year-old male and undefeated winner of the
Grey Goose Breeders' Cup Juvenile, received the high weight assignment of 126 pounds on the 2012 Experimental Free Handicap, released today by The Jockey Club. The 126 pounds assigned is the same as last year's co-high weights Hansen and Union Rags and is the standard high weight for the list. The filly division is headed by Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies winner Beholder at 123 pounds, the standard high weight for fillies.

The Experimental Free Handicap, published annually by The Jockey Club since 1935, is a weight-based assessment of the previous year’s leading 2-year-olds, with the weights compiled for a hypothetical race at 1 1/16 miles on dirt. This year’s weighting committee of racing secretaries was composed of Ben Huffman of Churchill Downs, P.J. Campo of the New York Racing Association and Thomas S. Robbins of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club.

The committee weighted a total of 125 males and 117 fillies. Eligible for weighting were all 2-year-olds of 2012 that finished among the top four in graded or listed stakes races run in the continental United States. Listed stakes in 2012 were those with a value of $75,000 or more available to all starters, and no restrictions other than age or sex. The full lists for both colts and fillies are accessible here on the Jockey Club website along with past performances for all of them.

The other use of the Experimental rankings is in determining which horses are "dual qualifiers" for the Kentucky Derby. Horses ranked within 10 pounds of the male topweight or who are a champion in another country and have a Dosage Index of 4.0 or less and a Center of Distribution of 1.25 or less are considered the dual qualifiers. These horses have statistically shown that they have a better chance at winning the Derby.

Listed below are all the colts with an Experimental weight of 116lbs or higher and all the fillies with 114lbs or higher. Dual qualifiers are highlighted below with an asterisk and each colt's dosage index is show in parentheses by his name. This year only one of the top colts has a dosage too high to be a dual qualifier. Since the fillies are unlikely to go to the Derby, I only included the dosage index for the ones at 116lbs and higher.